Les Paul’s Estate Auction

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Les Paul Auction CatalogLester Polsfuss passed away at the age of 94 after a fight with pneumonia on August 13, 2009.  Nearly 3 years later, the property from the estate of Les Paul went up for auction in Beverly Hills, CA.

The auction company put together a beautiful 400 page book listing the items of the estate.   In case they end up taking down the book, I have saved the PDF here (68MB) for posterity.

The estate items range from the awesome, to the slightly disturbing, to the nostalgic and the just plain silly. Let’s take those in order:

  • awesome: tons of guitars of all types, prototypes, design drawings and notes, amps, oscilloscopes and test equipment, electronics (pots, tubes, caps, transformers, etc), mixing desks and early multitrack tape recorders, and even some  hand-cut wood acoustic wall panels
  • slightly disturbing: his social security and union cards, Chase credit card, drivers license, passport, Christmas cards, and signed checks.  Oh, and a white terry cloth bath robe.
  • nostalgic: photos, awards, scripts and letters, the bronzed army boots that Les was wearing when he met Mary Ford, and his gloves and glasses.  Ok, also slightly disturbing!
  • just silly: $400 of used picks, a New York state license plate reading Les Paul, a signed vegetarian cook book from Linda McCartney.  Lots and lots of turtleneck shirts.   Apparently the license plate sold for $10,000!
  • I don’t know where this fits- but a  top-hat given to Les Paul by Slash (Valued at $6000-$8000! Hah!)

Man, did Les Paul have an amazing guitar collection!

Fender 1951 No-CasterIn addition to the gorgeous specimens from Gibson and Epiphone that you would expect, you’ll also find lot 722- a 1951 Fender No-Caster signed by Leo Fender (valued at $40,000-$60,000).   It actually sold for $180,000 (!) as documented in this handheld video from the auction floor.  That’s some kind of crazy, right there.

1950's Flat-top Les PaulAnother standout in terms of valuation is lot 369: a one-of-a-kind white flat-top 1950’s Les Paul, valued at $60,000-$80,000.   Not the prettiest thing, but certainly unique.

And here’ a couple of beauties: lot 676, a 1940’s Epiphone Zephyr archtop (sold for $144,000) and lot 547, a 1937 D’Angelico Style A archtop.

1940’s Epiphone Zephyr archtop1937 D’Angelico archtop1937 D’Angelico archtop headstock

It’s all a little sad to see this collection, representing a life’s work, parceled out in lots to the highest bidder, but the money went to a good cause.  The auction raised nearly $5 million, to benefit the Les Paul Foundation, which supports music education, engineering and innovation, as well as medical research.